... The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is the spontaneous (passive) reporting system CDC and FDA use to monitor vaccine safety. We used cognitive testing to evaluate proposed revisions to the current VAERS form.We conducted in-person cognitive interviews with 22 volunteers to evaluate proposed revisions in a prototype VAERS 2.0 form (new VAERS form). We analyzed data using thematic ana ...

... Since Jenner, vaccines and vaccinations have stirred a hot, highly polarized debate, leading to contrasting positions and feelings, ranging from acritical enthusiasm to blind denial. On the one hand, we find anti-vaccination movements which divulge and disseminate misleading information, myths, prejudices, and even frauds, with the main aim of denying that vaccination practices represent a major p ...

... Development partners and donors have encouraged and incentivized governments in developing countries to explore ways of working with third-party service suppliers to reduce costs and increase service delivery capacity. The distribution of vaccines and medicines has for a long time shown demand for outsourcing but public health systems have struggled to develop the expertise and capital assets nece ...

... Estimates of the effectiveness of influenza vaccines are commonly obtained from a test-negative design (TND) study, where cases and controls are patients seeking care for an acute respiratory illness who test positive and negative, respectively, for influenza infection. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates from TND studies are usually interpreted as vaccine effectiveness against medically-attended ...

... Immunization program delivery strategies that enable high vaccine coverage, particularly in inaccessible and remote areas, are critical to achieving optimal vaccine impact. In addition to demonstration of safety and efficacy, there are many factors that influence whether a newly licensed vaccine will be introduced into a country’s national immunization program, particularly in resource-constrained ...

... The main aim of this study was to assess care-giver satisfaction with vaccination services in public health facilities in Zambia, and examine its determinants.This study used data from a recent population-based household survey, conducted from May to August 2015. Respondent satisfaction with vaccination services received during the last visit was measured on a five point Likert scale ranging from ...

... Vaccines have much relevance and promise for improving adult health in the United States, but to date, overall use and uptake remain far below desired levels. Many adults have not received recommended vaccinations and many healthcare providers do not strongly and actively encourage their use with patients. This has led some public health and medical experts to conclude that adult vaccines are seve ...

... This study (NCT01915888) assessed public health impact of Rotarix, GSK [RV1] vaccination.Children born between 2007–2011 were identified from Truven Commercial Claims and Encounters Databases and observed until earlier of plan disenrollment or five years old. Children receiving one or two doses of RV1 during the vaccination window were assigned to incomplete and complete vaccination cohorts, respe ...

... This paper describes engagement in European Immunization Week (EIW) in Tyrol, Austria in April 2016 and an assessment of its possible impact on demand for measles, mumps, rubella vaccination (MMR).It further describes the output of a knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) survey conducted during EIW, showing that 93% (188/202) of respondents were in favor of vaccination in general and 90% (192/21 ...

... Recognizing that infectious agents readily cross international borders, the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee issues Temporary Recommendations (TRs) that include vaccination of travelers from countries affected by public health emergencies, including serotype 1 wild polioviruses (WPV1s). This analysis estimates the costs and benefits of TRs implemented by countries with reported ...

... Schistosomiasis japonica is a zoonosis and presents significant public health problems in China and the Philippines. Vaccines targeting domestic animals constitute attractive control measures.We conducted three vaccine trials to evaluate the protective efficacy of recombinant full-length paramyosin (rSj97) in water buffalo. Animals were immunized with 3 doses of rSj97 adjuvanted with ISA206 at 250 ...

... Case-control studies are commonly used to evaluate effectiveness of licensed vaccines after deployment in public health programs. Such studies can provide policy-relevant data on vaccine performance under ‘real world’ conditions, contributing to the evidence base to support and sustain introduction of new vaccines. However, case-control studies do not measure the impact of vaccine introduction on ...

... During an outbreak of invasive meningococcal B disease on a university campus, we explored the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of members of the university community in relation to the disease, the vaccine, and the vaccination program.All students, faculty and staff were invited by email to participate in a 71-item online survey, which was administered after completion of the mass cli ...

... Before 2013, Senegal public health supply system was pull-based and fully public-run. Lengthy and recurrent stockouts of essential health products (incl. contraceptives) were the rule, not the exception as they used to strike more than 80% of public service delivery points (SDPs). Following a successful pilot in two districts in 2012, the Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Action (MSAS) impl ...

... Lessons learnt from the 2009 (H1N1) flu pandemic highlighted factors limiting the capacity to collect European data on vaccine exposure, safety and effectiveness, including lack of rapid access to available data sources or expertise, difficulties to establish efficient interactions between multiple parties, lack of confidence between private and public sectors, concerns about possible or actual co ...

... The 9th African rotavirus symposium was held in Maputo, Mozambique from the 8th to 10th of December 2015, including a total of 101 delegates from 17 countries, 15 of which were African countries. This forum brought together participants with various expertise including scientists, clinicians, immunization program managers, public health officials and policymakers. By the time of the symposium, 29/ ...

... Although 93% of 12- to 23-month-old children in India receive at least one vaccine, typically Bacillus Calmette–Guérin, only 75% complete the recommended three doses of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT, also referred to as DTP) vaccine. Determinants can be different for nonvaccination and dropout but have not been examined in earlier studies. We use the three-dose DPT series as a proxy for the fu ...

... Vaccination coverage is the usual metrics to evaluate the immunization programs performance. For the 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate (PCV10) vaccine, measuring the delay of vaccination is also important, particularly as younger children are at increased risk of disease. Routinely collected administrative data was used to assess the timeliness of PCV10 vaccination, and the factors associated with ...

... PATH hosted the inaugural Vaccines Against Shigella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (VASE) Conference in Washington, DC in June 2016, bringing together experts from around the world for a highly collaborative forum to discuss progress in the development of new enteric vaccines. Diarrheal disease and long-term sequelae caused by infections with the bacterial pathogens Shigella and enterotoxige ...

... There is an enhanced focus on considering the full public health value (FPHV) of vaccination when setting priorities, making regulatory decisions and establishing implementation policy for public health activities. Historically, a therapeutic paradigm has been applied to the evaluation of prophylactic vaccines and focuses on an individual benefit-risk assessment in prospective and individually-ran ...

... Yellow fever (YF) is regarded as the original hemorrhagic fever and has been a major public health problem for at least 250years. A very effective live attenuated vaccine, strain 17D, was developed in the 1930s and this has proved critical in the control of the disease. There is little doubt that without the vaccine, YF virus would be considered a biosafety level 4 pathogen. Significantly, YF is c ...

... Since December 2015, the first dengue vaccine has been licensed in several Asian and Latin American countries for protection against disease from all four dengue virus serotypes. While the vaccine demonstrated an overall good safety and efficacy profile in clinical trials, some key research questions remain which make risk-benefit-assessment for some populations difficult. As for any new vaccine, ...

... The risk of post-vaccination adverse events (AEs) is a primary public health concern. Among the AEs, pain is a significant source of anxiety for both children and their parents. This review describes and assesses the intensity of pain experienced by children post-vaccination with widely used Measles–Mumps–Rubella (MMR) vaccines.A systematic literature search was conducted in Pubmed, Embase and Coc ...

... Seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in China is low. This study aims to assess the role of community healthcare workers (HCWs) in increasing vaccination among high risk groups in China.We analyzed data from four knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) studies on seasonal influenza vaccination in China targeting guardians of young children, pregnant women, adults aged ≥60years, and HCWs from 2012 to 2 ...

... Orthopoxviruses (OPV) are emerging viruses with great importance in human and veterinary medicine, such as Vaccinia virus (VACV), which causes outbreaks of bovine vaccinia (BV) in South America. The clinical aspects of BV are similar to other vesicular infections, complicating the clinical diagnosis. This cross-sectional study evaluated the knowledge of Healthcare Professionals about BV and reveal ...

... The proportion of fully immunized children in Nigeria is reportedly low. There are concerns over national immunization data quality, with this possibly limiting country-wide response. We reviewed publicly available evidence on routine immunization across Nigeria to estimate national and zonal coverage of childhood immunization and associated determinants.A systematic search of Medline, EMBASE, Glo ...

... This article reviews the off-label recommendations and use of vaccines, and focuses on the differences between the labelled instructions on how to use the vaccine as approved by the regulatory authorities (or “label”1Label: The term "label" means a display of written, printed, or graphic matter upon the immediate container of any article. This includes the Summary of the approved Product Character ...

... At the end of 2013, the Government of Benin and Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP) launched a demonstration project in Comé Health Zone (HZ) to optimize the vaccine supply chain. A key part of the demonstration project was the creation of an “informed push model” of vaccine distribution supported by a new logistician position at the health zone (district) level. At the conclusion of the demonstra ...

... Rotavirus (RV) is a major agent of gastroenteritis and an important cause of child death worldwide. Immunization (RVI) has been available since 2006, and the Federation of International Societies of Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (FISPGHAN) identified RVI as a top priority for the control of diarrheal illness. A FISPGHAN working group on acute diarrhea aimed at estimating the current RV ...

... The World Health Organization, African Region is heading toward eradication of the three types of wild polio virus, from the Region. Cases of wild poliovirus (WPV) types 2 and 3 (WPV2 and WPV3) were last reported in 1998 and 2012, respectively, and WPV1 reported in Nigeria since July 2014 has been the last in the entire Region. This scenario in Nigeria, the only endemic country, marks a remarkable ...

... On 17 and 18 July 2015, a meeting in Siena jointly sponsored by ADITEC and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was held to review the goals of the Global Health 2035 Grand Convergence, to discuss current vaccine evaluation methods, and to determine the feasibility of reaching consensus on an assessment framework for comprehensively and accurately capturing the full benefits of vaccines. Through lectures and wor ...

... Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), an intracellular pathogen, is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection. In addition to acute cervicitis and urethritis, Ct can lead to serious sequelae of significant public health burden including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility. Ct control efforts have not resulted in desired outcomes such as reduced incidence and reinfection, and thi ...

... The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa proved to be the largest in the history of filovirus outbreaks, causing the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern in August of 2014. In collaboration with domestic and international partners, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) initiated several vaccine development projects in s ...

... Maternal influenza vaccination has increased birth weight in two randomized trials in South Asia but the impact on infant growth is unknown.A randomized placebo-controlled trial of year round maternal influenza immunization was conducted in two annual cohorts in Sarlahi District, southern plains of Nepal, from April 2011 through April 2014. Infants born to women enrolled in the trial had weight, l ...

... Vaccine hesitancy constitutes a major threat to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and to further expansion of routine immunisation. Understanding hesitancy, leading in some cases to refusal, is vital to the success of GPEI. Re-emergence of circulating wild poliovirus in northern Nigeria in mid-2016, after 24months polio-free, gives urgency to this. But it is equally important to prot ...

... Anthrax is a widely spread zoonotic disease found on nearly every continent. To control the disease in humans and animals, annual livestock vaccination is recommended. However, in 2007, the country of Georgia ended its policy of compulsory annual livestock anthrax vaccination. Our objective was to assess how the epidemiology of human anthrax has evolved from 2000–2013 in Georgia, in the wake of th ...

... Many parents make a conscious decision not to vaccinate their child. Multiple beliefs and perceptions surround this choice. If uptake of routine child vaccination is to increase, public health communications about vaccines must be informed by evidence on the factors affecting uptake.We conducted a systematic review to investigate psychological, social and contextual factors associated with uptake ...

... In the U.S., intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) for pregnant women colonized with group B streptococcus (GBS) has reduced GBS disease in the first week of life (early-onset/EOGBS). Nonetheless, GBS remains a leading cause of neonatal sepsis, including 1000 late-onset (LOGBS) cases annually. A maternal vaccine under development could prevent EOGBS and LOGBS.Using a decision-analytic model, we ...

... After 20years with no reported measles cases, on May 15, 2014 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was notified of two cases testing positive for measles-specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Under the Compact of Free Association, FSM receives immunization funding and technical support from the United States (US) domestic vaccinatio ...

... Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and Shigella are enteropathogens causing significant global morbidity and mortality, particularly in low-income countries. No licensed vaccine exists for either pathogen, but candidates are in development, with the most advanced candidates potentially approaching pivotal efficacy testing within the next few years.A positive policy recommendation for introduction of a ...

... Number-needed-to-vaccinate (NNV) is increasingly used to inform decisions about vaccine use, but it is not calculated uniformly across studies. This study compared two methodologies for calculating NNV with 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) to prevent one case of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) among US adults aged ≥65years: (i) using one-year absolute rate differences as was ori ...

... Infant vaccination rates have been declining in Italy over the past 5–7years. The aims of this study were to assess the trend in the proportions of children unvaccinated at 24months old, to identify sociodemographic factors associated with non-vaccination; and to examine changes in parental attitudes to vaccination over time.We conducted a population-based birth cohort study by combining existing ...

... The emergence of pandemic influenza strains, particularly the reemergence of the swine-derived influenza A (H1N1) in 2009, is reaffirmation that influenza viruses are very adaptable and influenza remains as a significant global public health treat. As recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of adjuvants is an attractive approach to improve vaccine efficacy and allow dose-sparin ...

... The 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak caused over 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths. Merck & Co. Inc., Kenilworth, NJ USA and NewLink Genetics are working with private and public partners to develop and license an Ebola vaccine that was evaluated extensively during the outbreak. The vaccine referred to as V920 is a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) in which the VSV-G envelope glycoprotein (GP) is ...

... In a prior agent-based modeling study, offering a choice of influenza vaccine type was shown to be cost-effective when the simulated population represented the large, Washington DC metropolitan area. This study calculated the public health impact and cost-effectiveness of the same four strategies: No Choice, Pediatric Choice, Adult Choice, or Choice for Both Age Groups in five United States (U.S.) ...

... To examine current vaccine sentiment on social media by constructing and analyzing semantic networks of vaccine information from highly shared websites of Twitter users in the United States; and to assist public health communication of vaccines.Vaccine hesitancy continues to contribute to suboptimal vaccination coverage in the United States, posing significant risk of disease outbreaks, yet remain ...

... Post-authorisation safety studies (PASS) of vaccines assess or quantify the risk of adverse events following immunisation that were not identified or could not be estimated pre-licensure. The aim of this perspective paper is to describe the authors’ experience in the design and conduct of twelve PASS that contributed to the evaluation of the benefit-risk of vaccines in real-world settings. We desc ...

... International efforts to eradicate smallpox in the 1960s and 1970s provided the foundation for efforts to expand immunization programmes, including work to develop immunization supply chains. The need to create a reliable system to keep vaccines cold during the lengthy journey from the manufacturer to the point of use, even in remote areas, was a crucial concern during the early days of the Expand ...

... As immunization programs around the world undergo rapid change and expansion, supply chain and logistics systems have become strained, making it increasingly challenging for national public health systems to provide reliable, safe, and efficient access to vaccines. Governments and immunization partners have been aware of this problem for several years, and in 2010, the World Health Organization (W ...

... Vaccination against Salmonella Typhi is one of the leading public health interventions reducing the risk of typhoid fever. There are two available licensed vaccines, Vivotif, oral live-attenuated, and Typhim Vi, intramuscular Vi capsular polysaccharide. The US military is a high risk travel population commonly vaccinated for S. Typhi. We describe the use of S. Typhi vaccination in this population ...

... Vaccination coverage with tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine in pregnancy or immediately postpartum has been low. Limited data exist on rigorously evaluated interventions to increase maternal vaccination, including Tdap. Tailored messaging based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) framework has been successful in improving uptake of some public ...

... In light of the changing epidemiology of varicella, we sought to examine varicella antibody levels in the prenatal population in the Canadian province of Alberta. All prenatal varicella screening tests performed between August 1, 2002 and February 2, 2014 (454,592) were included in this study. Test results, demographics and vaccination status were examined to identify varicella seroprevalence and ...

... SMART Vaccines 2.0 software is being developed to support decision-making among multiple stakeholders in the process of prioritizing investments to optimize the outcomes of vaccine development and deployment. Vaccines and associated vaccination programs are one of the most successful and effective public health interventions to prevent communicable diseases and vaccine researchers are continually ...

... West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-transmitted pathogen with a wide geographical range that can lead to long-term disability and death in some cases. Despite the public health risk posed by WNV, including an estimated 3 million infections in the United States alone, no vaccine is available for use in humans. Here, we present a scaled manufacturing approach for production of a hydrogen peroxide-in ...

... Seasonal and emerging epidemics caused by influenza virus remain as a public health concern and an economic burden. The weak immunogenicity of conserved epitopes on hemagglutinin that induces broad protective immune responses is the main obstacle to the development of universal vaccines. In the present report, we designed the cross-subtypic sequential vaccination strategy and evaluated its neutral ...

... Vaccination against Ebola virus disease is a tool that may limit disease transmission and deaths in future outbreaks, integrated within traditional Ebola outbreak prevention and control measures. Although a licensed Ebolavirus vaccine (EV) is not yet available, the 2014–2016 West African Ebola outbreak has accelerated EV clinical trials and given public health authorities in Guinea, Liberia, and S ...

... A maternal group B streptococcal (GBS) vaccine could prevent neonatal sepsis and meningitis. Its cost-effectiveness in low-income sub-Saharan Africa, a high burden region, is unknown.We used a decision tree model, with Markov nodes to project infants’ lifetimes, to compare maternal immunization delivered through routine antenatal care with no immunization. 37 countries were clustered on the basis ...

... Global immunization efforts to date have heavily focused on infants and children, with noted success on public health. Healthy adolescents and adults contribute to the economic growth and development of countries but efforts to ensure vaccine coverage for these groups receive inadequate global attention and resources. Emerging epidemics for a number of infectious diseases including Ebola, Zika, de ...

... Influenza A virus remains a major threat to public health, and the inactivated split-virus vaccine is the most prevalent vaccine used worldwide. However, our knowledge about cellular immune responses to the inactivated influenza virus vaccine and its correlation with humoral responses are yet limited, which has restricted our understanding of the vaccine’s protective mechanisms. Herein, in two cli ...

... Development of vaccines against highly pathogenic viruses that could also be used as agents of bioterrorism is both a public health issue and a national security priority. Methods that can quantify neutralizing antibodies will likely be crucial in demonstrating vaccine effectiveness, as most licensed viral vaccines are effective due to their capacity to elicit neutralizing antibodies. Assays to de ...

... Streptococcus pneumoniae is a frequent cause of community acquired pneumonia (CAP), with the largest burden of disease attributed to non-bacteremic pneumonia. Due to the high persistent burden of disease, pneumococcal pneumonia, particularly non-bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia, continues to be a major public health concern. There are currently two pneumococcal vaccines approved for use in adults ...

... Malaria remains a considerable burden on public health. In 2015, the WHO estimates there were 212 million malaria cases causing nearly 429,000 deaths globally. A highly effective malaria vaccine is needed to reduce the burden of this disease. We have developed an experimental vaccine candidate (PyCMP) based on pre-erythrocytic (CSP) and erythrocytic (MSP1) stage antigens derived from the rodent ma ...

... The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the on-going decentralised targeted hepatitis B vaccination program for behavioural high-risk groups operated by regional public health services in the Netherlands since 1-November-2002. Target groups for free vaccination are men having sex with men (MSM), commercial sex workers (CSW) and hard drug users (HDU). Heterosexuals with a hi ...

... Human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with the etiology of cervical carcinoma, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and several other cancer types. Vaccines directed against HPV virus-like particles and coat proteins have been extremely successful in the prevention of cervical cancer through the activation of host HPV-specific antibody responses; however, HPV-associated cancers remain a major ...

... Although dog vaccination has been demonstrated to reduce and eliminate rabies in humans, during meetings there are often calls for further pilot studies. The assembled data proves that a widespread approach is now required. While zoonotic rabies has a minimal presence in developed nations, it is endemic throughout most of Asia and Africa, where it is considered to be a neglected tropical disease. ...

... In the past 200years, vaccines have had unmistakable impacts on public health including declines in morbidity and mortality, most markedly in economically-developed countries. Highly engineered vaccines including vaccines for conditions other than infectious diseases are expected to dominate future vaccine development. We examine immunization vaccine policy as a driver of vaccine innovation and de ...

... Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an emerging zoonosis of major public health concern in Africa and Arabia. Previous outbreaks attributed camelids a significant role in the epidemiology of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), making them an important target species for vaccination. Using three alpacas as model-organisms for dromedary camels, the safety, immunogenicity and pathogenicity of the MP-12 vaccine we ...

... The persistent public health threat of infection with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) highlights the need for an effective MERS-CoV vaccine. Previous studies have focused mainly on the receptor-binding domain (RBD) on the spike protein of MERS-CoV. Herein, we investigated the immunogenicity and protective potential of the recombinant N-terminal domain (rNTD) of spike pr ...

... According to the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, diarrhea ranked ninth among causes of death for all ages, and fourth among children under 5 years old, accounting for an estimated 499,000 deaths in this young age group. It was also the second most common cause of years lived with disability (2.39 billion YLDs). The goal of the WHO/UNICEF Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Co ...

... Gram negative enteric bacteria, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), the etiological agent of typhoid fever is a major public health problem in developing countries. While a permanent solution to the problem would require improved sanitation, food and water hygiene, controlling the infection by vaccination is urgently required due to the emergence of multidrug resistant strains in multipl ...